1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to elevator buckets and methods of making such buckets as used with conveyor belts to raise such materials as grain and other commodities.
2. Background
Commodities such as grain require movement during storage and transportation. A common manner of movement is via conveyor belts but when a lift in height is needed particularly over a short distance or vertically then buckets are attached to the conveyor to provide an elevator. It may be thought that bigger buckets will mean that more capacity can be carried and/or larger commodity particle sizes may be accommodated so generally large-ish standard bucket sizes are defined. However, it will also be understood that smaller so called low profile buckets may be provided which allow more buckets for unit length of conveyor or elevator so letting the elevator or conveyor run at higher speeds so increasing capacity with lighter loads.
Hitherto low profile buckets have been made by taking a standard bucket and machining/manually cutting the standard bucket down to a low profile size. It will be understood it is easier to cut down than build up a sufficiently robust bucket but the costs in time and wasted materials are high. It will also be understood providing a separate mould for both standard and low profile sizes will be too expensive and then there will be the additional costs of mould change over time with lost production and safe storage of each mould.